A/N: Just a little thing I put together in like 12 hours from idea to production. It was inspired by some fanart of the peculiars sleeping, all of them in a bed except Miss P, who were sitting up.
An Ymbryne was a rare kind of peculiar, Jacob knew that, and as it seemed they had a lot of different talents and tricks that they applied accordingly. Many of these tricks, Jacob had in fact seen at working himself during all the time he had spent with the peculiars and their headmistress.
It was however, very late one night when he went up to get a glass of water from the kitchen, that he discovered what must surely be their most useful one by far.
He had expected to be all alone in the kitchen when he went to get his drink, as it was past midnight, and no one else could possibly be up.
As he stepped into his kitchen, though, he immediately noticed the presence of a second being in the room, it's dark silhouette impossible to miss as the moonlight seeping in through the curtains landed on it's back.
Surprised, scared and with way too many bad - horror movie vibes, Jacob had quickly turned on the lights in the kitchen, only to discover that it was no threat at all.
Miss Peregrine was sleeping sitting up in the chair, her head resting against the kitchen window as she seemed not to have been disturbed in the slightest by the lights Jacob turned on. She simply kept sleeping.
Despite and careful and on guard she normally was, once she passed out she seemed to be sleeping like a rock, not even disturbed by the bright lights that would surely have woken up anyone else.
With a knowing smile resting on his lips, Jacob turned off the lights once more and backed out the room, returning to his room without water but with a very juicy piece of information instead.
A few days later, after hearing his mother make an offhand comment about how Miss Peregrine's bed was always so neatly made, almost as if no one used it as all, Jacob found himself becoming curious. Still remembering his encounter with the sleeping Miss Peregrine in the kitchen, he wondered if it had just been that one time, or if she actually didn't sleep in her own bed.
The next night, Jacob sneaked out of bed at an hour when he was sure even Miss Peregrine would be asleep, and while he didn't find her in the kitchen, he instead found her curled up on the livingroom floor behind the sofa. She had brought her legs up to her chest, and her head was comfortably resting on top her knees, a small smile resting on her lips as she seemed to be having a good dream.
As Jacob first stumble across her little hideout, he accidentally pointed the flashlight he had brought along straight at her face, and for a second he was sure she was going to wake up, wondering what the hell he was doing.
Only she didn't.
Just like when he found her sleeping in a chair in the kitchen, she remained fast asleep, not as much as moving a finger despite the light hitting her in the face.
Miss Peregrine slept like a rock.
By now, Jacob was fully convinced that Miss Peregrine didn't actually ever sleep in the bed in the guest room in his house which she had been assigned. Instead, for whatever reason, she positioned herself in different quite uncomfortable looking positions and places around the house, and slept there, obviously waking up before anyone else in order to be able to cover her tracks.
Still, Jacob remembered his old chemistry teacher telling him that 'You can't trust your facts until they have been tested with three unrelated tests that gave the same result'. So far it was a slim chance it had been a coincidence, or that she preferred the floor or a chair at certain times, and he'd decided to wait two weeks before trying his theory a third time.
He was very curious to see where he'd find her next.
Two weeks later, he get out of bed and sneak down to the first floor, checking both the kitchen, where he found her the first time, and the living room, where he found her the second time, only to discover she was in neither place.
Stil, Jacob had no intention of giving up, and instead he continued his search, looking through mostly any place he could think of on the first floor, before going back to the second floor and looking there too.
It was when he suddenly came up with the idea to actually check out Miss Peregrine's room that he finally found her, hiding in the built in walk-in closet that was still relatively empty even though his mother had taken Miss Peregrine out to shop less than a week after she arrived, her worn out Victorian era dresses sourly having needed an update to something more modern.
When Jacob first came into her room, quiet as a mouse and fearing that he'd be caught this time, he had been amazed and excited to find that Miss Peregrine's bed was indeed empty, thus confirming his theory that she did not sleep there at night.
However, he had also been confused, because he had still not seen Miss Peregrine anywhere, and lest she'd flown off to rest in a tree somewhere in bird form, which he for some reason doubted she'd do, she ought to be somewhere.
He had just been on his way to leave the room and go back stairs, thinking maybe he missed her on the first floor, when he heard some light snoring coming from the walk in closet.
Prying the door open and looking around with his flashlight, he had found her sitting in the deepest, darkest corner, curled up and looking similar to when h'd found her sleeping behind the sofa.
Because lights and flashlights had failed to wake her up the other two times, Jacob hadn't been very careful with how he pointed the flashlight in his hand, and as it rolled across Miss Peregrine's face, she suddenly opened her hawk-like eyes.
"Ah!" Jacob exclaimed, backing, horrified as Miss Peregrine suddenly woke up.
"Ah!" She screamed back, terrified at the boy suddenly standing in the closet with her.
"What are you doing here?!" Jacob asked next, confused and tired and not really very coherent.
"What are you doing here, Jacob?! I do believe your mother taught you to not sneak into other people's bedrooms in the middle of the night!" She exclaimed back, obviously tired and confused as well as she used his first name instead of his last name, like she normally would.
For a moment, Jacob didn't know quite what to reply. He really shouldn't have been in her room, nore her walk in closet, but on the other hand she shouldn't have been there either. "And I thought your mother taught you to sleep in a bed." It's his final comment, showing off the reason he was in the walk in closet to begin with, and he gave her a triumphant smile.
Miss Peregrine seemed surprised at the last exclamation, looking around her like she just realised she was sleeping in a walk in closet, before slowly standing up, carefully not to hit her head against the wall.
"I don't sleep in beds unless I have to. They are extremely uncomfortable." She commented slowly, walking out of the closet with Jacob at her heels.
"Isn't sleeping curled up somewhere else more uncomfortable? Or at least, like, straining for your body?" Jacob asked back, realising too late that the last one might have been a bit offensive.
"How old do you think I really am?" Miss Peregrine hissed, glaring at him while presenting him with the trick question of the century.
"Not too old." he quickly assured her, her scowl being exchanged for an amused smile. "But still, beds are normally made to be comfortable to sleep on…"
"Jacob." Miss Peregrine sigh, obviously still not too happy to have to discuss her sleeping habits with the boy. "What is an Ymbryne?"
"A peculiar who can manipulate time and turn into a bird?" Jacob answered, confused as to why it was related to anything.
"Exactly. We're half-bird, half-human, are we not? And how does birds sleep?" Miss Peregrine asked, sitting down on her bed and giving him a look that closest resembled a first-grade teacher asking him to tell her what two plus two was.
Jacob looked at her, dumbfounded. How did birds sleep? They sleep sitting up."
They sleep sitting up
Realising what he had said, it all suddenly made sense. The closet, the chair, the sofa… Miss Peregrine slept sitting up, or almost anyway, just like a bird, because she was half-bird herself.
"We sleep sitting Jacob, like birds. And it is very hard to sleep sitting up in a bed." Miss Peregrine affectionately patted the sheets of the bed beside her. "It is nothing wrong with beds, neither I nor any other Ymbryne think so, but it's a part of peculiarity to sleep sitting."
"So you've always slept sitting?" He asked, still a bit shocked, and Miss Peregrine nodded.
"Yes, though it's not as though we can't sleep laying down in beds. It just make it very hard to get any good sleep, because it feels uncomfortable." Miss Peregrine blinked smiling. "Now, I do think it's time for you to go back to bed!"
"Of course, good night Miss Peregrine." After all Jacob had discovered and learnt that night he wasn't late to leave the room and return to his own bed, still trying to get over the facts that he had learnt.
Ymbrynes sleep sitting up, like birds